Patrick J. Toomey

WASHINGTON A recent string of mass shootings has Democrats and gun safety advocates renewing their call for legislation to require background checks for firearm purchases. But West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, the Democratic co-author of the bill, says it's going nowhere fast. "That bill's not going to come back up," Manchin told Bloomberg on Tuesday, "unless Republicans vote for it." In 2013, after a gunman massacred 26 people at Sandy Hook elementary school, in Newtown, Conn., Manchin partnered with Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., to write a bill that requires criminal background checks for people who buy a firearm at a gun show or over the Internet. Both senators had...

Related "Patrick J. Toomey" Articles

WASHINGTON A recent string of mass shootings has Democrats and gun safety advocates renewing their call for legislation to require background checks for firearm purchases. But West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, the Democratic co-author of the bill, says...

Democrats can expect to decide a primary contest in nine months to see who will challenge U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, a Republican who is seeking his second six-year term in the 2016 election. The seat is expected to be crucial to determining control of the...

Gov. Tom Wolf tapped to his top liaison to state lawmakers to become his next chief of staff on Thursday as her predecessor prepares to run for U.S. Senate. Wolf, a Democrat, promoted Mary Isenhour, who was a top adviser to his successful campaign last...

The newly resigned top aide to Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf says she'll give "serious consideration" to running for U.S. Senate in 2016 and will make an announcement about her future soon. Katie McGinty acknowledged the potential for her candidacy...

The top aide to Pennsylvania's governor resigned Wednesday in preparation to run for U.S. Senate in 2016 in a state seen by Democrats as key to helping them regain the chamber's majority. A Democratic official in Washington told The Associated Press...

In a story July 21 about Pennsylvania's U.S. Senate race, The Associated Press reported incorrectly that Joe Sestak had yet to report how much cash his campaign had through June 30. A July 15 filing by the Sestak campaign with the Federal Election...

The mayor of Allentown reports having raised $384,000 for the U.S. Senate campaign he suspended amid a grand jury probe. The (Allentown) Morning Call (http://bit.ly/1RQrDsB ) reports that Mayor Ed Pawlowski's report to the Federal Election Commission...

Gov. Tom Wolf's top aide attended a weekend retreat of national Democrats as she considers running for U.S. Senate in 2016. A spokesman for Katie McGinty said she spent the weekend in Martha's Vineyard with senators, donors and other potential...

WASHINGTON Election Day is more than a year away, but the field of most competitive Senate and House races is already starting to take shape. While the political environment could change over the next 17 months, the landscape is largely set as a handful...

WASHINGTON � After a series of legislative stops and starts, a Philadelphian's nomination to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals is in position for a Senate confirmation vote. The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday voted unanimously and without...

National Democrats in search of a candidate they can support to take on incumbent U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey have contacted Gov. Tom Wolf's top aide about running, but she is not saying whether she will run or not, Democrats said this week. Katie McGinty, who...

A daily look at late-breaking news, coming events and stories that will be talked about in Pennsylvania on Wednesday. ET TU, DISNEY? Walt Disney World officials say a bronze statue of Bill Cosby is being removed from the Hollywood Studios theme park....

WASHINGTON With international negotiators in Vienna working to reach a nuclear deal with Iran, and the guarantee of a congressional vote on any accord, both hawks and doves among pro-Israel groups are mobilizing over an issue that's growing in...

WASHINGTON The meeting lasted about 160 seconds. With just a few words, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, declared that there would be no vote that day on Luis Felipe Restrepo, a federal judge in Philadelphia who has been...

The mayor of Allentown has suspended his campaign for U.S. Senate days after FBI agents executed search warrants and questioned the mayor and another official of the eastern Pennsylvania's city. Mayor Ed Pawlowski said in a statement Monday that he wanted...

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is jumping in early to help Republicans hang onto control of the Senate in 2016, and going immediately on the attack. The Chamber is paying for new television ads starting Monday in Ohio and Pennsylvania, home to two of the...

Excerpts of recent editorials of statewide and national interest from New England newspapers: The Providence Journal (R.I.), July 1, 2015 Artificial trans fats, those once ubiquitous but dubious dietary substances, are heading for the door. The federal...

The City of Brotherly Love is becoming the City of Big Events.
Philadelphia's selection Thursday as host of next year's Democratic National Convention comes as it prepares for Pope Francis' visit in September.
U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, who led Philadelphia's...

President Obama released a $4-trillion budget Monday with liberal priorities that have little chance of passage but will serve as an initial foray in negotiations with the new Republican Congress and help define the Democratic Party in the run-up to the...

Mix a pitcher of martinis Tuesday evening to fortify yourself against the torrent of election returns painting a pointillist portrait of the nation's mind. Before you become too mellow to care, consider some indexes of our civic tendencies.
Voting began,...